From Naples to the Terra d'Otranto: unknown features of the eighteenth century musical world, musical professions and societies discovered by researching new archival sources

Abstract

The paper gives the results of an exhaustive work of research into notarial records and Catasti onciari which covered organ-builders, guitar-makers, choirmasters, singers, music teachers and players of all kinds of instrument who were active in south Apulia during the eighteenth century. The image emerges of a flourishing musical microcosm, notable for the quantity and quality of the enterprises continually undertaken during the decades and, in particular, in the middle of the eighteenth century, when Lecce (the chief town of what was at that time an extensive province) gained the designation of "little Naples" - in other words, the second city in importance of the Bourbon kingdom - for the splendour and exuberance of its artistic traditions.

The productive cycle of music in the Terra d'Otranto in the eighteenth century was therefore relatively autochtonous: in fact, practically all the musical professions of the time were represented in this peripheral environment, often through the versatility of one single artist who moved freely (and well rewarded) between churches, palaces and theatres - and even more often through forms of association between musicians (supported in this instance by three notarial documents given in the Appendix).
At the same time, the musical milieu of the Terra d'Otranto was almost entirely conditioned by and moulded on the example of Naples, as can be seen from the "commuting" of numerous less illustrious maestri between the province of origin and the capital of the kingdom, through an activity programmed to accept and reflect without delay artistic forms and contents.